


Asheville

by wneleh



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: M/M, actually pretty G and maybe not even slash, but not really gen either, hence the t rating, high school to college and maybe underage ack I just don't know, prompt: Link is too drunk to get into the top bunk (college years), rhinksummerficathon2k16, underage drinking for sure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 18:38:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7585546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wneleh/pseuds/wneleh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I’ve just dropped Rhett McLaughlin and his friend off at the airport.  Let me tell you, of the high school seniors you’ve had me host this season, Rhett (or should I say, Rhett & Link) is the most interesting.  As to whether I hope he accepts the basketball scholarship we're offering him – well, let me start at the beginning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Asheville

**Author's Note:**

> Most of this is completely made up, knitted out of the following bits: (1) UNC-Asheville recruited Rhett to play basketball. This is a division one school, so it's actually kind of a big deal. Whether there was a formal offer of admission, or a scholarship, we don't know. (2) UNC-Asheville is a four-year liberal arts college, with a good film school (or so the website says). It's not as hard to get into as NC State, but it looks like a pretty competitive school. (3) Rhett's dad really wanted him to play college basketball, but (Rhett has said) he understood his changing focus his latter year(s) of high school. 
> 
> Personally, if my choice was "film school + basketball" or "math, lots of math", it would be a hard decision, and I did math competitively in high school and have a BS it in. It seems very odd to me that they didn't choose the UNCA option. This is my attempt to explore what might have happened.
> 
> I have no clue whether this is slash. Imagine what you want :-).

Hi Coach,

I’ve just dropped Rhett McLaughlin and his friend off at the airport. Let me tell you, of the six or seven prospectives you’ve had me host this season, Rhett (or should I say, Rhett & Link) is the most interesting. Whether I hope he accepts the offer to be a Bulldog next year – well, let me start at the beginning.

They came in on a commuter flight Friday morning from Raleigh-Durham, a little prop plane that they let you walk right up to, if you’re meeting someone. The airstair came down, and first off the plane were these high school guys, dressed in black suits – 

Okay, coach, I know what you’re thinking, we wear suits to away games, it’s part of “Keeping it classy” –

Black suits, skinny ties, sunglasses (wore them coming off the plane, and, no, it wasn’t bright out), and black hats. They looked like – I don’t know, gangsters? I was holding a sign with McLaughlin’s name on it, and they walked over immediately, but McLaughlin introduced himself as Jake, and the guy with him as Elwood. “Elwood” was carrying two bags, one over each shoulder, and “Jake” was just carrying a guitar.

Yes, for 48 hours in Asheville he had to bring his guitar.

They quickly said was that, no, they didn’t want to do the 10 a.m. tour, because they wanted to hit the film department first. And also, if they did the tour, would they have time to practice later?

I said of course Jake/Rhett would be practicing with the team later, then he’d be coming to team dinner with the team and the other prospectives in town (some admitted already like him, some not) for the weekend. And of course he could shoot around a little before our Campbell game…

“I meant, guitar,” said Jake/Rhett. “We have a gig Sunday night after we get back and we’ve got some new material.”

“What type of music do you play?” I asked.

“Both types,” said stlll-Elwood-to-me. “Country AND Western.”

This cracked Rhett up. I’ve heard that line before; it’s not that funny and it didn’t really go with the suits. 

At my look (we were at my car by this time), still-Elwood said something like, “It’s 22 miles to campus” (which was correct) “we’ve got a full tank of gas” (which was almost correct, I’d gassed up that morning) “no cigarettes” (good for them) “it’s kind of cloudy out” (yup, as I’ve already said) “and we’re wearing sunglasses.”

“Hit it,” said Jake/Rhett.

During the drive, most guys ask about work load, both basketball and school-wise, and how much time travel takes, but it’s because they want to make sure they’ll have time for classes, and maybe a girlfriend. 

These guys asked the same sorts of questions, but made it clear it was because they wanted time for projects – making films, playing music, maybe other sorts of physical and performance art.

I told him that one time-saver was that all the athletes live in the same dorm, and are encouraged to live on campus all four years – that this helps with nutrition, and camaraderie, and also with academic support. This cracked finally-told-me-to-call-him-Link up… turns out they’re both essentially straight-A students in all-honors classes. Rhett’s dad’s a professor at Campbell… in other words, it’s not UNC-Asheville or basketball at some other school for him (them – more about this later), it’s UNCA/basketball or him (them) dumping basketball altogether and doing engineering somewhere. The appeal of UNCA, it turns out, is the film school, for Link. Rhett’s undecided, thinking about film but also about creative writing or pre-law or anthropology or sculpture or theatre or…

You get the picture.

A little while later Rhett’s like, but we can have non-jock roommates, right? And I’m, like, that sort of defeats the purpose!

Anyway, I get them to their film department interview (or whatever), then they do the campus tour (Ginger, the guide they drew, tells me they spent the whole time posing in those ridiculous suits, taking pictures of each other draped around statues, sometimes with the guitar). 

Finally I get them to the dorm; the first thing I hear is, “Hey, it’s Lefty!” and “Look, Charlie Neal!” More names for Link – it turns out he’s a soccer player and is kind of known in the central part of the state for scoring twice in a game with his left foot, despite being some sort of defensive specialist (I don’t know beans about soccer, sorry). 

So I hand him over to the soccer team for the evening.

I’m not going to bother going too much into Rhett the ball player– you saw how all the other high schoolers followed his lead instead of just sitting waiting to be told what to do. The captains had to do some reigning in, actually, but he took it okay. Great outside jump shot, as advertised. He could be a little more aggressive under the board, also as advertised. Good command of the court – good situational awareness, but he could be a little quicker. He needs to put on about 30 pounds, but that will come. And did you pick up that he might be kind of injured? Just a feeling I had. Since he wasn’t really favoring either leg I think it might be his back.

At dinner he rolled through stories, and if he hadn’t been so thin I’d have thought he was twenty and coming in from a junior college, and not 18 and coming in from Hicksville.

Again, you probably saw more than I did. 

One thing you might not have picked up on, though – on the way back to the dorm I mentioned a couple of the guys, and one of our trainers, by name – I was trying to sound Rhett out about the state of his back – and he had no idea who I was talking about. He’d had these guys in stiches multiple times during team dinner – if one prospective sticks out, it’s Rhett McLaughlin – but he hadn’t absorbed any of their names. I called him out on it, and said that Link and he usually remind each other about that sort of thing.

“Hang out a lot?” I asked.

“We’re blood brothers,” he said, like that explained everything. I have a real brother I get along pretty well with, Mikey. Mikey’s at Georgia Tech. Mikey and I didn’t ever talk about going to the same college, and I sure as heck don’t need him for conversational backup!

But, here’s another odd thing – when they were together, Rhett was actually worse. At team dinner, he was performing to the crowd. Earlier, they’d been performing for each other.

Okay, you’re really not going to like this next bit. 

We get back to the dorm, Link’s propped up against the door to my room, drunk as a skunk, sound asleep. Yeah, the soccer team got a 17-year-old drunk, then left him in the hallway curled around a barf buck (empty). Apparently drinking was a new experience for him. 

Rhett was pretty pissed – said he was sorry to have missed Link getting drunk but you could sure tell it was more than that.

I said I thought hick kids had nothing to do besides drink. Link woke up and said, “No, crystal meth.”

“Heroin,” said Rhett.

“Don’t forget smoking weeds,” said Link. “Not weed, weeds.”

“That last bit’s actually true,” said Rhett. “It was pretty anticlimactic.” 

There was no way we could, or would have wanted to, get Link up to the top bunk, so Rhett climbed into the bottom bunk and I helped Link in after him.

I would have just left them be, but I knew you wanted me to get a feel for Rhett’s plans. Here’s what I learned.

\- Whatever these guys do, they’re doing together.  
\- Rhett’s losing his passion for basketball. I think they see coming to UNCA as a way for Link to be able to do film school, with Rhett playing basketball as ‘payment’ because this is the only way his dad will let him go to a liberal arts college. But Rhett’s family doesn’t really need the scholarship, and Link has academic scholarships coming out of his ears, so the whole plan is tenuous.  
\- Their main alternative is NC State, where they’d major in engineering, or maybe architecture (Rhett).  
\- Main points in NC State’s favor: it’s closer to home for them, and Link’s his mother’s only child. And maybe they can keep their band together. Also, they seem to think the “academic fit” is better. I didn’t bother trying to dispute this.

“Playing college ball is only worth it if we can do other stuff as well. If we’re essentially going to the same school in name only, what’s the point?” Rhett asked.

I asked them whether they cared what people thought about them. Leaving my exact meaning open to interpretation.

“No,” said McLaughlin.

“He cares a little,” Link piped up then, “but then he sits on them.”

“Very rarely,” said McLaughlin.

The whole time we’re having this conversation, with me not ten feet away, Link’s kind of curled into Rhett. He says he’s dizzy as hell, Rhett tells him he’ll feel better soon. He says he might get sick, Rhett assures him it’s okay, there’s the bucket right there.

At one point, Link starts to drunk-sniffle. “It’s not going to work, is it?” Meaning them come to UNCA. 

I decide I should let them be, put my stuff in a duffle, and crash at my girlfriend’s place off-campus.

\- - - -

You saw them the next day at the game. Turns out Campbell is in their home town – it’s the school where Rhett’s dad teaches. Did you pick up that the entire team knows them both? I asked him later why they weren’t considering Campbell and Rhett told me his SAT scores, said Link’s were about the same, differently balanced. 

\- - - - 

I’ve no clue what they did with themselves yesterday evening, I stayed over at Marianna’s for another night.

\- - - - 

You always ask us, first and foremost, what sort of teammate we think a prospective would make. I think Rhett McLaughlin would make a great teammate. But he’s already found his team, and it’s not UNC-Asheville.

* * * THE END * * *

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, yeah, at the beginning Rhett and Link are cosplaying the Blues Brothers. This didn't actually happen, but it should have.


End file.
